This invention relates to paint rollers. More specifically, this invention relates to an improved paint roller assembly including a plurality of roller members designed for rapid coverage of a surface to be coated with paint with a minimum number of strokes and with little or no splatter of paint.
A variety of paint roller assemblies are available throughout the prior art. Such paint roller assemblies typically comprise a pivoting handle member coupled to a roller member for rolling motion over a surface for application and smoothing of paint thereon. Many of these prior art roller assemblies include a single roller member, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,241,175. Other prior art paint roller devices have a handle member attached to a plurality of roller members or the like for purposes of reducing the number of strokes required to cover a surface with paint, and for improving the ability of the roller to apply paint to small areas, such as corners. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,652,774; 3,130,435; 3,205,526; 3,085,270; 3,409,929; and 4,000,537. However, these prior art paint roller devices typically carry more paint than the more conventional devices with a single roller member, whereby splattering of the paint is a significant problem. While some of these multiple roller member devices have included shields and the like to reduce paint splatter, these prior art devices heretofore have not satisfactorily provided a splatter-free unit which is both relatively lightweight and easy to use.
Another problem encountered with prior art paint roller devices including multiple roller members is that their use tends to result in substantial user fatique. More specifically, in some devices, the roller members are freely pivoted with respect to the handle member. Since the multiple roller members carry a substantial quantity of paint, the roller members tend to be relatively unstable with respect to their pivot axis to require substantial manual effort to orient the pivotal roller members properly with respect to a surface to be painted. Alternately, some prior art devices seek to overcome this problem by securing the multiple roller members against pivoting motion with respect to the handle member. However, this requires orientation of the device at precisely the same attitude at all times with respect to the surface for proper application of paint to the surface. This requirement of consistency in the orientation of the device also contributes substantially to user fatique.
The present invention overcomes the problems and disadvantages of the prior art by providing an improved paint roller assembly having a plurality of rollers disposed for rolling engagement with each other and with a surface to be painted for high-quality application of paint to the surface with little or no paint splatter. Moreover, the paint roller assembly of this invention is designed to be relatively lightweight for ease of use, and to include a pivoting handle member arrangement adapted for reducing fatique during use.